ED MILIBAND put the fight against independence at the top of Labour’s agenda yesterday with a bold claim to be the only politician who can lead a “One Nation” Britain.

In a game-changing conference speech in Manchester, the Labour leader cast off his image as a geeky MP and emerged as confident prime minister material.

Miliband broke the mould by talking without notes for more than an hour to the party faithful and pledged that he would rebuild Britain.

And he won one of the biggest ovations of his barnstorming speech for a blistering attack on David Cameron and his Con-Dem coalition.

He said: “Have you ever seen a more incompetent, hopeless, out of touch, U-turning, pledge-breaking, make-it-up-as-you-go-along, back-of-the-envelope, miserable shower than this Prime Minister and this Government?”

He put the battle against independence at the heart of his agenda and admitted there was a real risk that Alex Salmond could succeed in breaking up Britain.

Miliband said Scottish independence would leave the UK worse off.

He said: “There is no more important area of our common life than the United Kingdom itself.

“One of our four countries, Scotland, will decide in the next two years whether to stay or to go.

“I want to be quite clear about this – Scotland could leave the United Kingdom. But I believe we would be far worse off as a result, not just in pounds and pence but in the soul of our nation.

“I don’t believe that solidarity stops at the Border. I care as much about a young person unemployed in Motherwell as I do about a young person unemployed here in Manchester.”

Miliband reclaimed the Tories’ “One Nation” heritage, using the phrase 46 times in an electrifying speech that won him several standing ovations.

He spelled out his vision for a fairer Britain where banks played by the rules, where forgotten teenagers were given hope and where the whole country shared the same values.

Ed with his wife Justine

He said that he had been inspired by the Olympics bringing the country together and also by Benjamin Disraeli, the 19th century PM who created the “One Nation” Conservative tradition.

Setting out the strength of the bonds that make Scotland part of the UK, he said: “If you think about the people of Scotland and the Olympic Games, they weren’t cheering on just the Scottish athletes, they were cheering on all the athletes of Team GB. That’s what the SNP don’t understand.

“Why would a party that claims to be left of centre turn its back on the redistribution, the solidarity, the common bonds of the United Kingdom?”

“It is up to us. The Labour Party must be the people who fight, defend and win the battle for the United Kingdom.”

He also insisted his party could not go back to old Labour.

Miliband said: “We must be the party of the private sector just as much as the party of the public sector. As much the party of the small business struggling against the odds, as the home help struggling against the cuts.

“We must be the party of south just as much as the party of the north. We must be the party as much of the squeezed middle as those in poverty. There is no future for this party as the party of one sectional interest of our country.”

He slammed the coalition’s handling of the economy but warned of tough spending choices ahead.

The speech won acclaim from across the Labour movement as the moment that could transform Miliband’s dreadful personal ratings and the party’s chances of winning the 2015 general election.

Union firebrand Len McCluskey, the Unite general secretary, said: “This is a tour de force. It will offer genuine hope to voters.”

Peter Kellner, of polling agency YouGov, said: “It was the best Labour leader’s speech since Kinnock in 1985 and the most important since Blair in 1994.”

Angus Robertson, the SNP leader at Westminster, described the speech as an extraordinary message to Scotland.

He said: “The admission in Miliband’s speech is that Labour now amounts to nothing more than a party of One Nation Toryism – even though the nation of Scotland has rejected Tory policies in election after election.”